Youngest manager Tuttle gets Millwall tuned up for his first big test

Tuesday 17 January 2006 20.47 EST
First published on Tuesday 17 January 2006 20.47 EST

David Tuttle clutches cliche like a comfort blanket. His sentences are swathed by phrases such as "we're all in it together" and"at the end of the day", but in his line of work that is hardly a fault.

At 33 years of age Millwall's manager is the youngest in the Championship and only Bury's Chris Casper at 30 is younger in the entire league. Tuttle was never high-profile at the eight clubs he served, among them Sheffield United, Crystal Palace and Spurs, so he is still relatively unaccustomed to holding court with the media.

But it is not the press that he has to impress. Tuttle needs to convey his message to a callow collection of players with whom he still identifies strongly. "At first I was daunted by it," he said of his temporary appointment last month. "I have been in the assistant manager's job, I've done the scouting, but I didn't know how to go about it. But the players have been fantastic so it's made it easier."

So, too, have results. After the sergeant-major style of Colin Lee, who made way at The Den to become director of football, the players have responded to the new man's ready smile. The 1-1 draw 11 days ago, against an Everton side who had enjoyed two straight wins, earned tonight's FA Cup replay and the prize is a fourth-round visit from Chelsea. It was also the fifth match undefeated in a sequence that lifted Millwall off the bottom, though Saturday's 2-0 loss at Preston ended that run.

"I was enjoying it until Saturday," said Tuttle, not one for brooding. "Coming back on the coach we were disappointed but you just get on with it. It's in the past. As soon as I was off the coach, it was out of my mind. What's the point of being down? We've got young boys here and so if they see that I'm down, they're going to be down. It would reflect going downwards. So it's a fact of getting everybody up again and getting ready for the next game."

Those positive words should encourage a Millwall board that has yet to make his position permanent. Tuttle has consulted the League Managers Association over the status of his game-to-game appointment, concerned that it is having an effect on his squad and his ability to recruit new players. Despite the absence of a formal response from the board, though, Tuttle will claim the territory. "I've been a player, and you always want to know what the manager is," he said. "We are going to try and get players in by saying that I'm here until the end of the season.

"We love this football club, we love the fans and if we can get players in as I believe, with the players we've got and the team spirit we've got, we'll get out of the position we're in."

Millwall fans, aware of his connections with Palace, did not take to Tuttle as a player but he feels that survival this season would improve his standing. Inexperience is no bar to ambition and Tuttle, who dreams of one day managing England, seeks to emulate a man he might meet in the next round.

"There are people who I respect in the game who've been helping me out: Steve Coppell, Martin Allen, Mike Newell, Harry Bassett. You look at the best manager in the world at the moment, Jose Mourinho, and you want to get to those levels. I'm just on the bottom of the ladder, I'm going to be asking for everybody's experience and gradually start going up that ladder."

Newell, of course, last week spoke up against agents. A sign at the entrance to Millwall's training ground states: "Strictly no agents, licensed or otherwise, allowed on these premises without prior approval of the management."